Rags to Riches

Chapter 25: He Bites The Dust

I stand there for a few more seconds, wondering when the impact of the bullet was finally going to effect me. Did it not hurt at first?

I open my eyes and glance down at my stomach, just to see if it was bleeding.

I was clean.

I look over at Erin, who has a hand over her mouth holding back her pure shock. I hear the loud thud before I see him.

Theo is still holding up the gun where he shot the man who tried to kill me. He fell to the ground screaming, clutching his leg in excruciating pain. The man still raised his gun and went to shoot at Theo, but with horrifying accuracy he blew the man's hand off, sending the gun across the ground.

I swallow. "Did you just-" I start and look up at Theo who had a blank look on his face. "Did you just shoot him?"

"It was either you or him, who did you think I was going to choose, princess?"

"How did you know how to aim like that?" I say in a shaky voice. It was a stupid question on my part. 

"You have got to be kidding me." Theo snarls. "He was just about to put a bullet between your eyes. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Have you done this before?" I ask, glancing down at the crumpled body then back up to him. I remember Julian mentioning he killed his mother.

He didn't have time to answer my question, because loud voices were already nearing toward us.

"We need to go," Theo walks briskly toward me and grabs my elbow. "Now."

He pulls me to run but I stumble, my knee burning and giving out beneath me. Maybe it was just the shock. I wouldn't know. Or maybe it was because Theo scared me a little bit right now. Julian was willing to kill, but Theo was willing to get his brother arrested and demolish his name. In a way, he was just like Julian. 

"Teagan," Theo says in a soft voice as he puts an arm around my waist and helps me back up. "We can talk about this later."

"The stairs." I suddenly say. "I was heading toward the stairs."

"Dammit," Theo mutters as he throws the gun to the ground and scoops me up in his arms.

We hurry down the stairs and exit through a back door.

"Took you two long enough," Julia snaps as she adjusts the large black duffel bag on her shoulder.

"You won't be able to run fast with that thing." Theo narrows his eyes.

"Well you certainly have your hands full," She shoots back.

I realize she's right. Well, of course she's right it's blatantly obvious Theo is carrying me, but I mean that I will slow him down. I need to ignore the pain so we could get out of here as fast as possible.

I wiggle out of Theo's arms and put pressure on my left leg, letting the adrenaline take over.

"I'm fine." I say before Theo can ask. "Let's just get out of here."

I hear the sound of distant shouting, and Theo quickly picks up the black duffel bag and swipes it over his shoulder. "We need to go. Now."

So we ran. We ran down the block to get to our limo, only to find that it wasn't where we left it. Actually, to be clear, it was gone.

"Dammit!" Theo swears as we hear the sound of thunder above us.

"It's going to rain soon," Julia says.

"No shit Sherlock." Theo snaps and Julia gives him a fierce glare.

"So we should, I don't know, take shelter?" She says.